ASUS Zenfone 6 Hands On and First Impressions


ASUS just introduced the Zenfone 6, the company’s latest flagship smartphone at an event in Spain. We got to check out the smartphone, here are the first impressions.

The phone packs a 6.4-inch FHD+ IPS LCD screen with 19.5:9 aspect ratio and 92% screen-to-body ratio with narrow bezels. The screen looks bright, and supports 96% NTSC color gamut, DCI-P3 and HDR10. It has Corning Gorilla Glass 6 protection. Powered by Snapdragon 855, the phone has up to 8GB of RAM.

It runs stock Android 9.0 (Pie) with ZenUI 6.0, and the company has promised Android Q and Android R for the phone.

The main highlight of the phone is its flip camera. The phone comes with 48-megapixel main camera with f/1.79 aperture, 1/2″ Sony IMX586 sensor, 0.8μm pixel size, Laser auto focus, EIS and Dual LED Flash along with a 13MP secondary camera with 125-degree ultra-wide lens with real-time distortion correction. It uses Quad Bayer technology for large-pixel levels of light sensitivity offering 12MP output with effective 1.6μm pixels that is sharper. The phone supports has 4k 60 fps video recording.

You can also flip the camera 90-degrees which is useful in some cases, offering a new perspective.  The flip-up camera module made from Liquid Metal is lighter than stainless steel and is 4x stronger. It will close automatically if you drop the phone, and the company at the launch said that it has tested it with up to 100,000 flips.

The back of the phone has 3D  curved back glass with Corning Gorilla Glass protection. The phone has a fingerprint scanner on the back, unlike most phones that have an in-display fingerprint scanner.

There is a customizable smart key in addition to power button and volume rockers. It has dual speakers, one on the front and the other on the bottom, NXP smart amplifiers that deliver powerful, crisp and detail-packed sound and the company doesn’t miss out the 3.5mm audio jack. The phone also comes with a dedicated dual SIM and a microSD card slot.

It comes with a 5000mAh battery with support for Qualcomm Quick Charge 4.0 and comes with 18W charger in the box. It promises up to 2 days of battery life on a single charge.

The phone also comes in Twilight Silver color, in addition to Midnight Black, and starts at 499 Euros (US$ 557 / Rs. 39,132 approx.) for the 6GB RAM with 64GB storage version. It is already available for order in several  European countries and will start shipping from May 25th.

Srivatsan contributed to this post


Author: Varun Krish

Varun Krish is a Mobile Technology Enthusiast and has been blogging about mobile phones since 2005. His current phones include the Apple iPhone 13 Pro and Google Pixel 6. You can follow him on Twitter @varunkrish and on Google+ You can also mail Varun Krish